RadiumOne CEO Ousted After Plea in Domestic Violence Case

The founder and CEO of a technology-advertising firm has been fired in the wake of his pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges in a domestic violence case, the company announced Sunday.

Gurbaksh Chahal

Zuma Press

In a statement, the tech-advertising company RadiumOne said its directors voted Saturday night to terminate the employment of Gurbaksh Chahal as CEO. He will be replaced by Bill Lonergan, the company’s COO.

San Francisco-based RadiumOne has been in the eye of an online media storm since Chahal struck a plea deal last week. According to court documents, police said video cameras in his apartment showed him striking his then girlfriend more than 100 times, but the videotape was ruled to have been improperly seized and thus inadmissable. Until Sunday a spokesman for Chahal had issued statements that its five-person board was standing behind Chahal, and said the company planned to move forward with an IPO.

In an interview Sunday afternoon, Chahal said he was “innocent from the get-go. I agreed to plead guilty to the misdemeanors to satisfy my board. The Twittersphere took it to another level.” He added, “I am no longer a part of RadiumOne.”

Asked about his future he said, “I’m 31. I’ll figure that out.” It is unclear what happens to his financial stake in the company.

Chahal had been active on social media himself, posting on a Twitter account known to have been used by him in the past, and on a personal blog. His posts alternately apologized to his firm and his family, criticized some board members, and said he did not injure his then-girlfriend. According to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, the victim declined to cooperate with prosecutors. Her attorney declined requests for comment.

Nonetheless, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists had taken to social media to question why the board was not taking action against Chahal. Silicon Valley has gained a reputation for its under-representation of women from executive positions down to its vast array of engineers, and for what some view as a sexist culture. One prominent technology web site, TechCrunch, announced it was terminating RadiumOne as a sponsor of an upcoming conference.

Correction: An earlier version of this article was accompanied by an unrelated photo that was provided in error by Getty Images. That photo has been removed.